It is fair to say Scottish rugby's two professional sides timed it perfectly. The leading clubs in England and France, as revealed exclusively by the Guardian, are growing restless once again and are weighing up whether their financial futures would be better served by breaking away from tournaments such as the Heineken Cup within three years. So what happens? Sure enough, Glasgow and Edinburgh secure the first opening-round Scottish win-double in history and the French clubs manage only one win in six attempts.
Oh Flower of Scotland, when will we see your like again? Possibly as early as this weekend: Edinburgh are at home to a subdued Racing Métro, who showed precious little behind the scrum at home to Cardiff, and Glasgow are at Leinster, where they have already won this autumn in the RaboBank Pro 12. What a pre-emptive strike that would be, particularly if the Welsh regions also maintain their 100% winning start.
The bigger picture, though, cannot be obscured by one weekend of tartan triumphalism. A mere 4,208 people watched Glasgow's last-gasp triumph over Bath at Firhill. There was a higher attendance at Aironi's home game with Leicester than for the fixtures at London Irish, Saracens, Ospreys or the Scarlets. The blanket TV coverage across Europe must be having some effect but for those who believe club and provincial rugby should be aspiring to a bigger, brighter future, the figures underline why radical change is back on the agenda.
It remains a vexed debate. Clearly, there are some seriously wealthy individuals who would be interested in some kind of global club competition, perhaps split into two conferences according to time zones. The winners of the Europe/South Africa division would then play off against the Asia/Oceania winners. The TV rights, sponsorship value and global profile would be huge. But where would that leave rugby in, say, Scotland or Italy? What would it do to the Six Nations Championship, the financial driver of northern hemisphere rugby?
Premiership Rugby's chief executive Mark McCafferty is proposing a rather less radical world club championship format involving the winners of the three main European leagues and the Heineken Cup winners against the three most successful franchises in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, plus the Super 15 winners. The trick, as ever, is finding a place for it in the calendar. That, in turn, reopens the old debate about a global season which would involve more summer rugby in the northern hemisphere. "The season calendar is the golden key to unlock things," says McCafferty. "We'll continue to work on that. If someone finds that particular key it [the world club championship] could happen in a year or two."
This explains why Saracens' upcoming Heineken Cup pool game against Biarritz in Cape Town during January is being so closely monitored by numerous interested parties. It is understood Sarries originally wanted to play two games in South Africa on successive weekends, including their 8 January Premiership fixture against Bath, but were ultimately granted permission to organise a one-off experiment. Will the locals turn out on a balmy Cape summer evening to watch two alien teams, even with a smattering of South Africans involved?
It is a considerable punt but McCafferty is among those who believe it is well worth taking. "Is it any greater risk than a game going on in front of 3,000 people in Italy? The European tournament has to broaden its horizons and be a bit more adventurous. You can't stand still."
As it happens Derek McGrath, European Rugby Cup's chief executive, has a similar view on the Saracens' initiative, happy the European Rugby gospel is being spread. "Commercially it was a very easy one. We could see this would make sense for a tournament with a European base but global ambition. It would have been shown on TV in South Africa anyway, but why not bring the product down there for people to touch and feel it. From a strategic point of view, it makes absolute sense."
ERC officials also stress they are as ambitious as anyone to push the boundaries. But while ERC's turnover has doubled in the past five years to just over €50m, its union-dominated voting structure is not designed to satisfy wealthier, more ambitious clubs. That in-built strain becomes even more acute in times of financial hardship. If the bulk of the money is going towards propping up professional organisations with no realistic prospect of ever making a profit because they cannot attract sufficient supporters, the hawks argue the club game will never reach its full potential.
None of this mattered, of course, when Ronan O'Gara was slotting over his princely drop goal to beat Northampton at Thomond Park in one of the great European pool games, or when Richie Gray was celebrating with his ecstatic Glasgow team-mates. But Gray, the brightest new star in the Scottish firmament, is moving south to Sale Sharks next year and the migration of bigger names to the bigger clubs continues apace. As money becomes ever tighter, these are tense times for those on the margins.
Using your head
Representatives from 30 unions will gather in London with independent experts this weekend to debate best practice at the International Rugby Board's 2011 medical conference. It comes at a time when head knocks, in particular, have rarely been more prevalent in big games. Over the three days, delegates will consider concussion-protocol education, as well as the role of the match-day doctor, cardiac screening of players and GPS as a tool for injury prevention. It remains absolutely vital that players, coaches and doctors are kept up to date with the latest research on the subject. In that regard can I recommend an excellent piece by Tom English in the Scotsman last weekend – and the IRB's own website: www.irbplayerwelfare.com.
Worth watching this week
The Rugby Football Union. If Martin Johnson is not going to stick around as England manager, the time has come for him to rule himself publicly out of contention. Rob Andrew and the Professional Game Board are also due to meet on Thursday. The chance to hire Shaun Edwards has already been lost. The next three weeks are unlikely to be dull.
